Maybe I am seeing a conspiracy where none exists, but there is something that puzzles me about television advertising.

This is not a scientific finding by any means, but it seems that more often than I would take to be random, when I switch channels during a break for commericals, I find that the new channel is showing advertisements too.

I have at times switched through six or seven channels to find each showing adverts.

What do we think: do the stations deliberately have their breaks at the same time in case they lose viewers to another channel that is not showing a real programme?

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There are just two types of people in this world, those who hear the music and those who don't.

I have often wondered that as well. It's frustrating to switch only to find another commercial. But I have to admit, I'd be interested in a program, switch channels to see what else is on during a commercial and become interested in THAT program (if I found one) and totally forget to switch back to the original channel. Having a limited attention span like I have is detrimental to other people watching my TV the same time.

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May the tail of the elephant never have to swat the flies from your face.

Maybe I am seeing a conspiracy where none exists, but there is something that puzzles me about television advertising.

This is not a scientific finding by any means, but it seems that more often than I would take to be random, when I switch channels during a break for commericals, I find that the new channel is showing advertisements too.

I have at times switched through six or seven channels to find each showing adverts.

What do we think: do the stations deliberately have their breaks at the same time in case they lose viewers to another channel that is not showing a real programme?

I have noticed this trend too a lot and I think it's just a ploy by the advertisers to force us to watch the ads subconsiously as we have the tendency to be impatient and just watch them for nothing else better to watch on TV.

I'd say it's a lot less likely to be a conspiracy, and more part of having shows all start and stop at roughly the same time. If all the shows start on the hour or half hour, and they schedule ads to get the maximum number in without making you give up on watching altogether, they'll all have their ad breaks at roughly the same intervals - first one eight minutes into the program, or whatever it is, then another eight minutes after that, etc. They end up all being at about the same time because they are all trying to do the same thing, and have worked out that this ad spacing is the best way to do it.

In the US (and maybe elsewhere, too) the channels on cable tend not to be independent, but to be part of big conglomerates that own several channels. And, yes, I believe that many of these companies DO coordinate commercial times for their cable channels.

For example, Viacom owns (among others) Spike, Comedy Central, and TV Land. I have found that when switching between these, commercials can't be escaped, because they all go to commercial at the same time. The same thing is true of Bravo, USA, Syfy, and Oxygen (all owned by NBC-Universal) and TNT, TBS, and CNN (all owned by Turner Broadcasting).

Given the way the USA tends to smile on monopolies, the day will come when all these companies merge, and it will no longer be possible to flip away from commercials at all. I hope other nations are wiser!

:-O

_________________________I'm still excited about my first book being up on Amazon (about online forums)!

Trying to watch television with my brother-in-law is a nightmare. As soon as an advert comes on he switches channels, and continues to do this until he finds something (anything) which isn't showing one. By this time, he's forgotten what he was watching in the first place. When I visit, I take books with me!

I don't tend to watch commercial TV or listen to commercial radio. On those occasions where there is something that I simply must watch, as soon as the commercial breaks start I pop out and make a cup of tea.

I don't buy magazines either due to the quantities of marketing/advertising garbage that they carry as well.

I DVR everything - to the extent I never know what shows are on when anymore. I sometimes watch them on my iPad via the TiVo app and have noticed that months ago, most commercial breaks were 3:30 minutes and now they're 4:00 or 4:30 long! (MTV and Bravo usually have the longest commercial breaks.)

_________________________"Without the darkness, how would we see the light?" ~ Tuvok

Trying to watch television with my brother-in-law is a nightmare. As soon as an advert comes on he switches channels, and continues to do this until he finds something (anything) which isn't showing one. By this time, he's forgotten what he was watching in the first place. When I visit, I take books with me!

My dad does that all the time. It was the worst when we were trying to watch "Star Trek" and a hockey game was on at the same time. The family would end up yelling at him to change the channel back and he would claim it was probably still a commercial (we were usually right!).

_________________________"Without the darkness, how would we see the light?" ~ Tuvok

If I watch television, which isn't often, I tend to watch the BBC. Which means no commercials. And if I wanted to watch a programme that had been on a commercial channel, I watched it via the internet catch-up service and my adblocker would remove the ads for me. I was happy. However ITV has now programmed its catch-up service to spot if you're using an adblocker and it won't let you view a programme unless you disable it. &*£%*!

_________________________The Hubble Telescope has just picked up a sound from a fraction of a second before the Big Bang. The sound was "Uh oh".

True, but I find the endless trailers between BBC programmes to be just as annoying as any commercial, since they rarely "trail" anything that I'm interested in. And even the BBC isn't above pushing its own commercially available products ("A book to accompany this series is available in the bookshops now, price £29.99").